Rakim’s “The Seventh Seal” CD Finally Breaking This Fall

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – “The Seventh Seal,” the long-anticipated album by rap legend Rakim, is slated for release in the fall.

The rapper — best known as half of the rap duo Eric B. & Rakim — signed with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label in 2001. Featured on the 2002 top 10 R&B single “Addictive” by Aftermath labelmate Truth Hurts, Rakim later parted ways with Dre and Aftermath, and his album was never released. Rakim has not released a new studio album save for 2008’s mostly live set, “The Archive: Live, Lost & Found,” which included four previously unreleased songs.

The new album is being released on Rakim’s Ra Records label in a joint venture with Tuscan Villa Entertainment. Its first single, “Holy Are You,” will hit shelves July 28. (but you can hear it below)

The rapper tells Billboard the new album is fueled by “consciousness and spirituality.”

Billboard: What’s the story behind the title, “The Seventh Seal?”

Rakim: The seals are from the Bible — Revelations and the coming of the Apocalypse. But Islam, Judaism, Christianity: All have a version of the same events. The Lion of Judah breaks the seven seals one by one, each imparting knowledge and inflicting catastrophe, ending with seven trumpets announcing the end of Times. After the Apocalypse, God rises from the ashes to re-create the Kingdom, taking only the greatest elements from the past with them.”